coasterbill wrote:I’ll be honest, I still feel like Winterfest is inevitable. It’s just a question of when they pull the trigger. I know Dorney isn’t much for exciting new additions but this is quite different than (say) a new ride and offers much more immediate, measurable returns.

I would expect every park in the chain except for Michigan’s Adventure and Cedar Point to add Winterfest eventually.

CoasterAuditor wrote:^Agreed 100%. I go to amusement parks for "fun" and do my best to avoid looking for negatives as I am out to have a good day, unless the negatives are aggressively in my face or something.

I am with you! I always just go to have a good time. I know nothing and no where is perfect. Even the best parks in the world have issues. I have learned to be like this since my home park is Six Flags America. I really like going there - I just do not focus on the negative.

CoasterAuditor wrote:^Agreed 100%. I go to amusement parks for "fun" and do my best to avoid looking for negatives as I am out to have a good day, unless the negatives are aggressively in my face or something.

I am with you! I always just go to have a good time. I know nothing and no where is perfect. Even the best parks in the world have issues. I have learned to be like this since my home park is Six Flags America. I really like going there - I just do not focus on the negative.

Yup! I have only went to Six Flags America once 10 years ago and I had a blast. I need to get back hopefully in the Spring after I hit the gym really hard over the offseason. Six Flags America is a flawed park but it has a fun coaster collection and they've added some cool flats the last couple years. I just want them to add a Giant Discovery so bad. It is overshadowed by Kings Dominion and BGW for sure but it's always fun as most amusement parks are.

I feel similar about Dorney Park. I had a great time when I went just none of the coasters really blew me away and it's four hours away and there's been no coasters added so I am not really itching to go back.

coasterbill wrote:I’ll be honest, I still feel like Winterfest is inevitable. It’s just a question of when they pull the trigger. I know Dorney isn’t much for exciting new additions but this is quite different than (say) a new ride and offers much more immediate, measurable returns.

I would expect every park in the chain except for Michigan’s Adventure and Cedar Point to add Winterfest eventually.

Even Valleyfair?

I wouldn't be at all surprised though I would expect a strong focus on lights and family rides and little-to-no focus on adult coasters. It's very close to a major population center and if the lights are good then I don't see why it wouldn't work. Yes it's cold, but so is Holidazzle and apparently it gets busy as sh*t. People are used to the weather where they live.

To be clear, I'm not omitting Cedar Point and Michigan's Adventure because of weather, I'm omitting them because they're not close enough to major year-round population centers and because Michigan's Adventure closes for the season in September. It's not going to close for a few months and reopen and they're not going to do a haunt event and run through the fall because Cedar Point needs as much of their staff as they can get for Halloweekends.

That makes sense. Although to be honest my first thought was weather being the main issue for Cedar Point and Valleyfair when it comes having Winterfest just based on their locations. But then again I said the same thing about my park and I was wrong about that.

Generally these events are locals events and Dorney is a perfect park for it. It’s located within a city (like... IN a city) of well over 100k people with plenty of large towns immediately next to it. They can also section the park off as they see fit and in their case they have everything they need for a successful event on or on top of the hill (family rides, an indoor show venue, a few coasters and a kids area so they can easily close off at least half of the park and manage risk while still creating a great event.

The Valleyfair layout is conducive to it also if you cut the park at the waterpark and close off the new area by Steel Venom. There are over 3 million people in the immediate metro area and they already have popular outdoor Christmas events that are proof of concept that nobody in Minnesota gives a sh*t if it’s cold. It won’t be a ride-heavy event but no Cedar Fair event is anyway. That one is less of a sure thing than Dorney but it’s entirely plausible.

But yeah, if you want to make a cash bet that Dorney won’t announce a Winterfest event within the next 3 years hit me up.

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